Welcome, Kevin Sumlin. Make yourself at home as the 11th head football coach in UH history. Feel free to stick around Cullen Boulevard awhile.

Hundreds of Cougars faithful greeted Sumlin on Friday with a standing ovation. Sumlin beamed a 1,000-watt smile and waved to the crowd, wide-eyed. He is 43 and has never been a head coach, and he oozes energy and ambition.

Here for championships

"I'm coming here," Sumlin said, "to win championships."

Sumlin replaces Art Briles, who parlayed a 34-28 record at UH into a seven-year, $12.6 million gig at Baylor. The Cougars haven't won a bowl game since 1980, downgrading from the Southwest Conference to Conference USA in the pro-cess. Some coaches' deathtrap and suicide rap is something entirely different to Sumlin.

"A gold mine," Sumlin said. "I really, really couldn't be more excited about being here at the University of Houston. I think everything is in place for us to be successful."

In reaching a five-year agreement with Sumlin, Maggard passed on a continuity candidate who would have pleased the old Cougars guard. The other finalist, former coach Jack Pardee, is 71 and hasn't worked the sideline since 1995. The Pardee plan called for surrounding himself with a loyal band of former Cougars and grooming a successor from within the family.

Fresh blood

"I think it would have worked," Maggard said.

The more Maggard did his due diligence, the more convinced he became it would work even better with fresh blood and fresh ideas. If the risk is that Sumlin will use UH as a steppingstone to bigger and better things, then it's a risk Maggard is willing to take.

Sumlin has worked under Bob Stoops, R.C. Slocum, Dennis Erickson and Mike Price. Proven winners. His past employers describe him as energetic and upbeat, a tireless — and most important, effective — recruiter who knows how to connect with players. A linebacker as a college player at Purdue, Sumlin evolved into a respected offensive coach. He has spent the past five seasons at Oklahoma under Stoops, working up from special-teams coordinator/tight ends coach to co-offensive coordinator/receivers coach.

Steppingstone no worry

"I view this as a great opportunity for us," Maggard said. "I'm not worried about the whole business of a steppingstone thing like a lot of people are. If you have a good, solid program that can attract people, you don't worry about that as much. Do you want vagabonds? No. I think it makes cynics out of the kids.

"But if somebody wants to better themselves, and they do a great job and they look at it in the right way, I'm OK with that. I think it's shortsighted to some extent to say, 'Where are we going to be in 10 years?' when 10 years ago, this program was in the toilet."

Maggard makes no secret of his penthouse aspirations for UH. In his view, the Cougars have no business setting their sights at being mere C-USA contenders. With UH's tradition, with its prime location, location, location, in one of the most fertile high school talent bases in the country, Maggard expects championships. He expects to see the Cougars crashing the Bowl Championship Series party.

"With that many players this close to this campus," Sumlin said, "there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to keep those players here, let their moms and daddies see them play and win a whole bunch of games."

At one point during the search, Maggard asked Stoops if Sumlin is ready to be a head coach. Stoops' answer: "Absolutely." Sumlin arrived at Purdue as a walk-on and departed as one of the top 10 tacklers in school history. He is not, in other words, one who readily takes no for an answer.

'Guy for the job'

"The more that I began to discuss this job with him, the more that I really, really, really, really thought it was the place for me," Sumlin said. "There towards the end, I tried to convince him that I was the guy for the job."

Welcome, Kevin Sumlin. Make yourself at home. Feel free to stay awhile. Before the band played one last time, the next Cougars coach left the faithful with one last thought.

"I can't wait to get to work," Sumlin said. "And I can't wait to get that first championship next year."